“You know how Mom is, especially after Dad died. She likes to have us all here. She’s thrilled you’re home, though I can’t see why. It’s not like her favorite child hasn’t been around.”

“Keep telling yourself you’re the favorite.” I scratch my beard, that I’d finally gotten around to shaving to an appropriate length. I’d let it grow a little rampant while I was in Mexico, letting it grow for weeks at a time before trimming it. Now that it’s back to the stubble I used to have, my face feels fucking strange without the extra hair.

I stare out the window as we haven’t moved yet with all the midday LAX traffic and note a man and woman seemingly reunite for the first time. She drops her luggage and launches herself into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and I notice her shoulders move up and down and I wonder if she’s crying. She pulls away and then their lips connect and my heart begins to pound in my chest at the thought of having a similar reunion with Whitney.

She’s fucking engaged. I ball my hands into fists. How did this happen? What the fuck do Kev and Miche think? I think to myself.

“So, we’re just ignoring the elephant in the room?” I don’t respond because frankly I’m tired from traveling and don’t feel like dealing with Trey’s relentless line of questioning. “That the only reason you’re even home is because you got your panties in a twist about Whitney getting married? You’re not going to do anything stupid, right? I called Chloe and she says Whitney is excited.”

I raise an eyebrow, knowing that this is a sure way to get the heat off me for now. “I didn’t know you were still talking to Chloe.” Chloe Monroe, Whitney’s older cousin, and my brother, had a relationship as complicated as mine and Whitney’s. Of course, it wasn’t a huge deal to anyone with there being only a nine-year age difference between them versus mine and Whitney’s over twenty year difference. Not to mention, no one was anyone’s parental figure so that fucking helps. They’d met at one of Michelle and Kevin’s holiday parties and proceeded to spend the next year and a half fucking without any kind of label which led to the age-old question from Chloe of “what are we?” to which my fuckboy of a brother at the time could not provide an answer.

So, in typical fashion, she’d moved on and now it seems he’s still pining over her although claims he’s over it. Tale as old as time.

“We talk from time to time but I called her yesterday when you got all territorial and possessive on the phone about Whitney to figure out if you guys were still talking and you just hadn’t told me.”

“You fucking told her you talked to me?” I groan, knowing that it’s definitely gotten back to Whitney by now that I was asking about her.